In today’s show Susanne Nielsen brings you an encore presentation of her late colleague , Hamburg born journalist Stevie Anderson’s commentary on life as she lived it in her final years in Florida. She moved to Palm Harbor with her Swedish husband Mr. Andersson. Stevie as her friends called her was Miss. K. until she married a Mr. Stevens in Australia in 1960. Her two sons made a life in the country of her first love and she found fulfillment in her work first in Berlin, then TV in Australia and finally writing, again some TV and doing the Friday and later Saturday segments of the German Radio Show. Most memorable were her commentaries that always began “If you ask me…?” and ended after we heard her unique view on “all things Florida” with “oh, but you didn’t ask me , did you?”

The Cultural Center invites you to dinner at the Cafe Vienna, May 3rd, 4:00 pm! Make your reservations now! 813-254-5088

The Cultural Center for German Language invites you to its 2014 programs.

The Cultural Center offers monthly programs to its members, organizes events and group excursions to cultural venues such as museums, theaters with exhibitions, opera, music often paired with optional visits to European restaurants all in the spirit of sharing German, and German speaking heritage in a variety of cultural settings.

Shared events with other German-American organizations like the German American Society Pinellas, the German American Social Club of New Port Richey, the German American Society of Florida and the Richard Wagner Society and events from opera, classical concerts to the celebration of German folk culture and traditions during Mayfests, German Heritage fests and Oktoberfests may be found in the Cultural Center’s program.

The Cultural Center offers German tutoring by professional instructors. It is a German cultural and informational resource for those interested in learning and keeping fluent ones German language skills. Please contact Susanne Nielsen at 813-254-5088

All events of the Cultural Center are announced regularly on the German Radio Show, www.germanradioshow.com , (top left button: audio/blog). Read/hear and see a new show every Sunday, with archived shows on www.germanradioshow.blogspot.com

Membership to the Cultural Center for German Language is 25.- Individual and 35.- for a family per year.

For information, please call President Susanne Nielsen at 813-254-5088

Please join us for German church services every 4th Sunday of the month at the Grace Lutheran Church at 1812 North Highland Avenue in Clearwater, please call Trudy Mohrman in English or German for details ( 813-884-9139).

- In 1812, we see the birth of Alfred Krupp in Essen, Germany. He inherited a steel company from his father at the age of 14. He built the company into an international company, producing train wheels and building the Krupp Canon.

- 1n 1849, Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm rejects the title of "Kaiser" as offered to hom by the Frankfurt Parliament.

- In 1857, we see the birth of Eugene Bleuler. He was a Swiss psychiatrist who introduced the term "schizophrenia" and the concept of "autism" to the medical field.

- In 1945, Hitler marries Eva Braun in Berlin.

- In 1987, the U.S. Justice department bars the President of Austria, Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States because of his suspicious actions in World War II.

- And in 1990 the demolition of the Berlin Wall begins near the Brandenburg gate.3

This segment is sponsored by www.DnDmusic37.com, in New Port Richey, FL

Season to include productions of Opera, Ballet, and Theater from Around the World

Sarasota, FL - Sarasota Opera is pleased to announce the line-up for the 2015 season of "HD at the Opera House". This series, which debuted in 2014 and more than quadrupled its projected income goal in its first year, has allowed Sarasota Opera to expand its programming from the fall and winter season to year-around. In addition to opera, the 2015 series will include ballet and theater from some of the world's most famous venues. All showings will occur in the William E. Schmidt Opera Theatre at the Sarasota Opera House.

"We could not be more pleased with the response from the community for this program,” says Executive Director Richard Russell. "We believe our patrons will enjoy this season’s expanded lineup of operas, plays, and ballet from around the world."

HD at the Opera House

Select presentations will be preceded by a 15 minute welcome and pre-show discussion.

I due Foscari by Giuseppe Verdi

Starring Placido Domingo

Production from the Royal Opera House

Thursday, May 7th at 7pm

Sunday, May 10th at 1:30pm

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Production from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Thursday, May 28th at 7:00pm

Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz

Production from the English National Opera

Sunday, May 31st at 1:30pm

L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti

Starring Vittorio Grigolo and Bryn Terfel

Production from Royal Opera House

Thursday, June 11th at 7:00pm

Sunday, June 14th at 1:30pm

La fille du Regiment by Gaetano Donizetti

Starring Natalie Dessay

Production from the Vienna State Opera

Thursday, June 25th at 7:00pm

Sunday, June 28th at 1:30pm

Andrea Chenier by Umberto Giordano

Starring Jonas Kaufman

Production from the Royal Opera House

Thursday, July 9th at 7:00pm

Sunday, July 12th at 1:30pm

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

Production from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Thursday, July 23rd at 7pm

Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten

Production from the English National Opera

Sunday, July 26th at 1:30pm

The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner

Starring Bryn Terfel

Production from the Royal Opera House

Thursday, August 13th at 7:00pm

Sunday, August 16th at 1:30pm

Norma by Vincenzo Bellini

Starring Sondra Radvanovsky

Production from Barcelona's Gran Teatro de Liceu

Thursday, August 27th at 7:00pm

Sunday, August 30th at 1:30pm

Balanchine and Millepied

Production from the Paris BalletThursday, September 10th at 7pm

William Tell by Gioachino Rossini

Production from the Royal Opera House

Sunday, September 13th at 1:30pm

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

Production from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Thursday, September 24th at 7:00pm

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

By Kurt Weill

Production from the Royal Opera House

Sunday, September 27th at 1:30pm

Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan

Directed by Mike Leigh

Production from the English National Opera

Thursday, October 1st at 7:00pm

Sunday, October 4th at 1:30pm

Tickets are $18 for current Sarasota Opera subscribers and $20 for single ticket buyers. All seating is general admission. Tickets can be purchased online at www.sarasotaopera.org or by calling (941) 328-1300. You can also visit the Sarasota Opera Box Office at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236.

Sarasota Opera was awarded grants in 2014 from the William and Marie Selby Foundation and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to purchase film projection equipment for the Opera House, and an additional "Building Opera Audiences" grant from Opera America to support marketing.

BaritoneTodd Thomas with Susanne Nielsen

Subscriptions for the 2014-2015 Season are available now. Single tickets go on sale online on Friday August 1 and at the Sarasota Opera Box Office on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014. For more information or to secure your subscription for the 2014/2014 season, contact the Sarasota Opera Box Office at (941) 328-1300 or visit in person at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236.

ABOUT SARASOTA OPERA

Based in Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast, Sarasota Opera is approaching its 55th consecutive season. In 1960, the company began presenting chamber-sized repertoire in the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater on the grounds of Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art. Recognizing the need for a theater more conducive to opera, the company purchased the former A.B. Edwards Theater in downtown Sarasota in 1979 and first performing in it in 1984 as the Sarasota Opera House. The theater has just undergone a $20-million renovation and rehabilitation enhancing audience amenities, while updating the technical facilities including increasing the size of the orchestra pit. The theater, which reopened in March 2008, has been called “one of America’s finest venues for opera” by Musical America.

Since 1983 the company has been under the artistic leadership of Victor DeRenzi. Since then the company has garnered international attention with its Masterwork Revivals Series, which presents neglected works of artistic merit, as well as the Verdi Cycle producing the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi. Recognizing the importance of training, Maestro DeRenzi founded the Apprentice Artist and Studio Artist programs. Sarasota Opera also maintains a commitment to education through its Invitation to Opera performances for local schools and the unique Sarasota Youth Opera program.

Sarasota Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are supported in part by an award the Tourist Development Tax through the Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council and the Sarasota County Arts Council. Additional funding is provided by the City of Sarasota and the County of Sarasota.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – June 24, 2014– The Florida Orchestra (TFO) has announced the appointment of Michael Francis as its new Music Director starting with the 2015/2016 season, serving as Music Director Designate for the upcoming 2014/2015 season. Appointed as part of an initial three-year contract, his duties include being the primary conductor and providing the artistic leadership for concert programming and related artistic decisions. Although his primary role is with the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks series, he will also be conducting one concert each season for the Raymond James Pops and the morning Coffee Concert series. This reflects Francis’ personal desire to be fully-integrated artistically with the orchestra and the organization.

As the search process continues for TFO’s next music director, an extraordinary array of conductors will lead the orchestra next season, including these TFO debuts: Roberto Abbado, the former chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra and artistic partner to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra,and Bulgarian Danail Rachev, music director of the Eugene Symphony in Oregon. In addition, there are nine returning guest conductors on the Masterworks series. These include the music director of both the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta Mei-Ann Chen; chief conductor and artistic advisor to Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony OrchestraMichael Francis; music director of the New West Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles and associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Marcelo Lehninger;associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra Cristian Macelaru; former music director of the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy in France Tito Muñoz; music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Larry Rachleff; former music director of the Seattle Symphony Gerard Schwarz; associate conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Perry So; and assistant conductor of the New York PhilharmonicJoshua Weilerstein.

Under the leadership of music and artistic director James Bass, The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will join the orchestra for three masterworks programs on the 2014/2015 season: Orff’s Carmina Burana and Faure’s Requiem. In addition,the women’s chorus of The Master Chorale will perform for Holst’s The Planets. A highly select, 150-voice, all-volunteer chorus of singers from the entire Tampa Bay area, The Master Chorale has performed and premiered many symphonic choral works under the direction of Stefan Sanderling, Jahja Ling, Robert Shaw, John Nelson, Julius Rudel, founding music director emeritus Robert Summer and Jo-Michael Schiebe. The chorale has also performed abroad at London’s Westminster Cathedral and King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, among other locales. Designated in 1989 as the principal chorus of TFO, some of its most recent performances with the orchestra include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Delius’s Sea Drift and Appalachia (recorded live in concert on the Naxos label in 2012), Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Dvorak’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass No. 6, Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elija, Haydn’s The Creation and Mahler’s second and third symphonies. The Chorale will also perform Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé in the full ballet score version to close the orchestra’s 2013/14 season.

MUSIC AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JAMES BASS: Dr. James K. Bass, Grammy-nominated singer and conductor, is the director of choral studies in the School of Music at the University of South Florida (USF) and the artistic and music director of The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. At USF, he conducts the University Chamber Singers, Collegium and the Collegiate Singers, in addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting, philosophy, and literature. Previously, he was on the faculty at Western Michigan University and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Bass received the doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Miami–Florida, where he was a doctoral fellow. He received his Master of Music and Bachelor of Science degrees from USF and is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy.

Bass was selected by the master conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Soloists, Ton Koopman, to be one of only 20 singers for a presentation of Cantatas by J.S. Bach in Carnegie Hall, and was an auditioned member of Robert Shaw’s workshop choir at Carnegie Hall. He is one of 13 singers on the Grammy-nominated disc A Seraphic Fire Christmas. Bass is an active bass soloist and has performed at Winchester Cathedral in London, has sung three world-premieres of large works, and appears on CD recordings on the Albany and Seraphic Fire Media label. As a bass soloist, he has appeared with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, as well as with TFO, Grand Rapids Symphony, Back Bay Chorale and Orchestra, and Firebird Chamber orchestra.

Bass is a bass member and chorus master for Seraphic Fire, the Miami-based professional choir, and was appointed choirmaster for the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. During the summer of 2011, he co-founded the Professional Choral Institute at the University of South Florida. In its inaugural year of recording, Seraphic Fire and PCI received the Grammy nomination for Best Choral performance for their recording of Johannes Brahms' Ein Deuthches Requiem. He has prepared choirs for Sir Colin Davis, Sir David Willcocks, Jahja Ling, Michael Tilson Thomas, Stefan Sanderling, Markus Huber and Robert Shaw. Bass has served on the Executive Board of the American Choral Directors Association Central Division as College Repertoire and Standards chairperson. His professional affiliations include the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, American Symphony Orchestra League, Pi Kappa Lambda national music honor society, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity.

Nine Florida Orchestra Premieres

In addition to the many familiar works being offered, next season’s Masterworks series includes ten TFO premieres, which include four works by American composers: John Adams’ Lollapalooza, Charles Ives’ Central Park in the Dark, Adam Schoenberg’s Canto, and Barber’s Mutations from Bach for Brass and Timpani. Additional TFO premieres includeThomas Adès’ Three Studies from Couperin, Richard Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 2, Haydn’s Symphony No. 98, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride Overtureand Maurice Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) complete ballet score.

What awaits you next:

12) Scheherazade – Apr. 17, 18, 19, 2015

Music director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta, Mei-Ann Chen will conduct TFO with featured soloist Jeremy Denk in his TFO debut performing Bartok’s Piano

Art by Susanne Nielsen on display ( 5 paintings from the Coming to America Series) April/May 2015 at Ruth Eckerd Hall, view with paid admission to any event.

13) The Planets - May 1, 2 , 3, 2015

Music director of the New West Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles and the associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Marcelo Lehninger returns to conduct TFO and the women’s chorus of The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay in Holst’s The Planets. The concert opens with Barber’s TheSchool for Scandal Overture and also features TFO principal bassoon Anthony Georgeson in Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto.

14) Beethoven and Sibelius – May 29 ,30, 2015

Music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Larry Rachleff brings the2014/2015 season to a close conducting TFO in a program of Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and Sibelius’ monumental Symphony No. 5.

Pre-Concert Conversations

All of the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks concerts offer pre-concert conversations in each hall beginning one hour before curtain time. To provide audience members with a more enjoyable concert experience, guest conductors and artists discuss the personalities and circumstances behind the music as well as share fun and informative insights and anecdotes related to each program.

Tickets: Continued Dedication to Accessibility

At the onset of the 2011/2012 season, TFO announced a bold, mission-based accessibility initiative and lowered ticket prices for all Masterworks and Pops series concerts, simplified series packaging and diversified programming so that more people in Tampa Bay might enjoy live symphonic music. Announcing a price freeze, the orchestra will continue to offer the same affordable prices this season. Individual concert tickets for all Masterworks and Pops Series remain at $15, $30 and $45 per ticket. Other concert series ticket prices will also remain the same: Coffee Series concerts are priced from $24 to $42 each, and Rock Series concerts are priced at $35, $55 and $75 each. Venue facility fees apply to all purchases. Some restrictions apply.

TFO also offers a “Compose Your Own” Series whereby subscribers can create customized packages by mixing and matching any combination of Masterworks and Pops concerts for just $25 per ticket. A minimum of three concerts is required and good seats are made available on a first-come, first-served basis. Fixed package benefits do not apply.

Subscriptions are on sale now. For information on the 2014/2015 season, call the TFO Ticket Center at 727.892.3337 or 800.662.7286 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or purchase online at www.floridaorchestra.org. Single tickets will go on sale in August.

Performing nearly 100 concerts annually in the tri-city area of Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg, The Florida Orchestra is recognized as Tampa Bay's leading performing arts institution, one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida, and one of the most vibrant orchestras in the United States. With live performances including the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks, Raymond James Pops, Coffee Concerts, Duke Energy Morning Masterworks, new Rock Concert series, as well as Youth Concerts and Free Pops in the Park Concerts, The Florida Orchestra offers a vast scope of concerts each year. The mission of The Florida Orchestra is to enrich the life of the Tampa Bay area as it inspires, entertains and educates a wide and diverse audience with the unique experience of live symphonic music, ensuring that future generations will continue to enjoy this legacy that so magnificently celebrates the human spirit.